The order of the steps, without rushing
Touch nothing until the police have been. On the landing of an old block on the Grande Rue, the splinters torn out of the frame fall into the stairwell and vanish with the first sweep of a broom. Yet they are what shows where the force was applied, and a door already repaired makes any proper examination impossible.
Photograph everything before moving it: the door from the landing, the area around the lock, the frame, the keep, the splinters on the floor, then the inside of the flat. In an inner courtyard in the centre of Oullins, photograph the porch and the pedestrian gate as well: how someone got into the building will be asked sooner or later.
Report the break-in to the police, then declare the claim to your insurer within the period your policy sets. In between, temporary securing closes the home without wiping out the useful traces. Permanent repairs come afterwards, once you know what the insurer wants and what the building management takes on for the communal parts — a live question in the courtyard blocks of central Oullins.
Close up first, replace afterwards
What gets done depends on what gave way. On the timber doors of old Oullins it is almost never the lock: it is the jamb that splits around the keep, levered open with a crowbar. Fitting a new lock to a split jamb repairs half the problem, and the door will give at the same place the next time.
In the buildings of Les Hautes-Roches and Le Perron the flat door is usually more recent, solid timber hung in a metal frame. The attack then goes to the cylinder, snapped or torn out with pliers. A lock that has been through that has to be treated as compromised even if the key still turns: internal clearances have shifted and parts are already started.
Keep every part that comes off: the drilled cylinder, the twisted keep, the pieces of jamb. An insurer may want to see them, and they show what kind of attack took place. If keys went missing during the break-in, the cylinders have to be replaced for everything the bunch opened: cellar, letterbox, courtyard gate, the garage up at Haute-Roche.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our securing your home after a break-in page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Oullins-Pierre-Bénite.